My diagnosis with Parkinson's Disease in September 2009 at age 80 gave my life a new focus and challenge. Finding ways to meet this challenge helped make 2010 the best year of my life. I hope this blog will be a place where I can connect with others who also are dealing with aging and its afflictions and attractions so that we can share our "experience, strength and hope."

February 6, 2013

Want Medical Advice? Beware of Oprah, Celebrity Docs, and Evangelists

I don't watch much TV. I'd heard of Drs. Oz and Mercola, but didn't realize millions of people get their medical advice from TV celebrities, not from their doctors or other healthcare professionals.

Then, in my
online research for this blog, I stumbled upon a surprising video showing how Dr. Mary Newport had begun giving coconut oil to her
Alzheimer's-afflicted husband with seemingly miraculous results.

Dubious, I looked for the source for the video
and saw -- or so I thought -- that it came from "CBS." I posted the video and a write-up
on my blog (http://bit.ly/wX1hsQ).

I was embarrassed and angered to later discover the video aired not on CBS, but rather CBN, the Christian Broadcasting Network, home of Pat Robertson's "700
Club" TV show. (I suspect it's not just coincidence that "CBN" is featured prominently without spelling out what it stands
for. I can't be the only one to mistake it for CBS, or for CNN.)

The embarrassment and
anger I felt about my goof may explain why I've featured several posts debunking the
coconut oil claims. But the more I've researched this topic, the angrier I feel that
this unsubstantiated hype has generated a coconut oil craze and raised false
hopes for millions of people with Alzheimer's and their caregivers. It's also made big bucks for CBN, Robertson,
and Newport (http://bit.ly/UKKbsa).

That story made me take a closer look at other healthcare hucksters on TV.

Oprah, M.D.?
Until Oprah retired from her popular TV show in 2009, her seven million viewers got a steady diet of health tips. She offered some sound advice on diet and fitness, but the program also became a forum for some questionable medical
claims.

As Newsweek reported in a cover story, actress Jenny McCarthy used Oprah's show to link some well-respected childhood
vaccines to autism -- a claim many experts dismiss -- without challenge from
Winfrey. Suzanne Somers and Robin McGraw (Dr. Phil's wife) used the
show's reach to endorse hormone therapy for women, though it can also boost the
risk of heart attack and stroke.

Oprah often acknowledged
both sides in medical debates. But impartiality was compromised as she gave an adoring reception to the celebrity proponent of the latest miracle cure, while the other point of view might come from a brief comment by an unknown doctor in the
audience.

Observers also questioned Oprah's
enthusiasm for novel cosmetic surgeries that sometimes led to complications. One plastic
surgeon was quoted as saying: "If she told viewers that arsenic would make
them beautiful, we'd be getting hundreds of calls from people asking for arsenic."

I didn't watch her
show. But when I hear her name, the image that pops up is of Oprah, tears streaming down her face, part of the huge crowd at Chicago's Grant Park as TV screens reported Obama's 2008 election
victory. Yes, it's a fondly remembered image for me.

Oprah's Protégé, Dr. Oz
On Monday, I reported on Dr. Oz's
hype for green coffee bean extract as a miracle pill for weight loss. His recommendation generated
a buying frenzy similar to the run on coconut oil after Pat Robertson touted it as a treatment for Alzheimer's. Yesterday, I reported on the interesting juxtaposition
of Dr. Oz the highly regarded heart-transplant surgeon and Dr. Oz the TV
evangelist for miracle cures of dubious merit (http://bit.ly/WMrXdw).

Today, I found a report on a
recent Dr. Oz show in which he endorsed a
"breakthrough," "magic," "holy grail," "revolutionary" new fat-buster, garcinia
cambogia. He said this extract
"may be the simple solution you've been looking for" to burn fat
"without spending every waking moment exercising and dieting."

Of course, the miracle cure isn't really a cure at all. It's
not even new. Garcinia cambogia has
been studied as a weight-loss aid for more than 15 years. A 1998 randomized controlled trial found the
extract no better than placebo for
weight and fat loss. More recently, a
group of researchers conducted a systematic review of 12 randomized trials of garcinia cambogia and concluded that there
was no clear evidence that the extract has any impact on body weight.

Just as Oprah promoted Dr. Oz as
"America's doctor,"Oz in turn anointed Mercolaas a "pioneer in holistic
treatments" and "a man your doctor doesn't want you to
listen to."

That description no doubt is true, since Dr.
Mercola:

has received three warning letters from the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration for violating U.S. marketing laws by making false and
misleading claims,

has called microwave ovens dangerous, claiming that they emit dangerous radiation and that microwaving food adversely
alters its chemistry. (The Harvard
Medical School Family Health Guide says "cooking with a microwave
probably does a better job of preserving nutrient content of foods because
the cooking times are shorter."),

has questioned whether HIV is the cause of AIDS,

has argued that vaccines are dangerous and that they even cause AIDS,

has asserted that the mercury in vaccines is
harmful despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary,

has argued that children shouldn't be given the
flu vaccine since very few children die of the flu,

has promoted alleged experts like Tullio Simoncini, who claims that cancer is a fungus that can be cured with baking soda.

Finally, here's what Business Week had to say about Mercola's marketing of his
products:

Mercola gives the lie to the notion that holistic practitioners tend to be so absorbed in treating patients that they aren't effective businesspeople. While Mercola on his site seeks to identify with this image by distinguishing himself from "all the greed-motivated types out there in health-care land," he is a master promoter, using every trick of traditional and Internet direct marketing to grow his business.... He is selling health care products and services, and is calling upon an unfortunate tradition made famous by the old-time snake-oil salesmen of the l800s.

# # #

These are just a few of the medical-care hucksters out there. Hundreds more pop up on the internet and TV. I haven't even mentioned all the late-night infomercials on healthcare products, which are classic examples of snake-oil salesmanship.

Just because someone is on TV wearing scrubs, doesn't mean you should take what they are saying as gospel. Even bona fide, credential doctors often end up talking about issues well beyond their area of expertise -- Dr. Oz, a heart surgeon, warning about arsenic in apple juice, for example.